Giants, A’s Clash over Territorial Rights

The public relations war we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. In a recent article, New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden suggested that MLB was unlikely to grant the Oakland A’s permission to move to San Jose. Baseball officials responded by saying no decision had been made.

Oakland correctly argues that a move to San Jose would actually place them further from the Giant’s AT&T Park: “We simply seek an approval to create a new venue that our organization and MLB fully recognizes is needed to eliminate our dependence on revenue sharing, to offer our fans and players a modern ballpark, to move over 35 miles further away from the Giants’ great venue and to establish an Exciting competition between the Giants and A’s.”

The A’s statement also says that the deal granting the Giants the South Bay territory basically happened with no more than a handshake. The late A’s owner Walter Haas let the Giants assume rights to San Jose as a favor to former San Francisco owner Bob Lurie, Oakland argues, because the Giants were considering moving to Florida: “MLB-recorded minutes clearly indicate that the Giants were granted Santa Clara, subject to relocating to the city of Santa Clara,” the statement says. “The granting of Santa Clara to the Giants was by agreement with the A’s late owner Walter Haas, who approved the request without compensation. The Giants were unable to obtain a vote to move and the return of Santa Clara to its original status was not formally accomplished.”

Hours after the A’s released their statement, the Giants came out with their side of the story. “The Giants territorial rights were not granted ‘subject to’ moving to Santa Clara County,” San Francisco’s statement reads. The Giants maintain that the area is rightfully under their control: “Based on these Constitutionally-recognized territorial rights, the Giants invested hundreds of millions of dollars to save and stabilize the team for the Bay Area, built AT&T Park privately and has operated the franchise so that it can compete at the highest levels.”

7 Comments

Mr. Wolfe, I suggest you find another location, we will vote you down no matter how many city employees lose thier jobs on the back of Chuck.

You got your soccer stadium, which will never be sold out unless you have a Mexican team come to play. This is just the truth. I bought season tickets when the Quakes first came SJ, Crazy George and all, but there is little intrest now. I am sure Chuck will allow more concerts there.

As for the A’s, not interested, our down town is dying and I would never come to a night game and yet the city in huge debt wants to spend 22 million to accomidate you in road improvements when the rest of our city roads are in ruins.

I would love to see you in the future when this city cleans up its own mess. But that will not be in the near future. MLB and Giants have it right.

Rick,
The Quakes sold out their last 6 games at Buck Shaw (~10,000) even after they were eliminated from the playoffs. 2012 started off with another sellout… and a win. As one of their season ticket holders, my experience is that it’s on a growth curve that will likely leave the new 18,000 seat stadium begging for expansion in another 5 years. Thank you Mr. Wolfe for bringing the Quakes to life again in San Jose.

No doubt, there is and should be appeal to all parts of the soccer community, but it does not depend on watching Mexican teams. Let’s see how many people show up at Stanford for Quakes v Galaxy on June 30. I’m betting on 40k+ without a Mexican team on the program.